Appeasing the demons!

I will explain a little later which are the most important ceremonies, as well as specific offerings we make to celebrate them. As we pay homage to the Gods, we must also be very careful to satisfy the demons! In order to maintain the balance and not offend them, every day at home, just after we placed our basket-shaped offerings on the raised shrines for the attention of the Gods and our ancestors, we placed other offerings on the ground. These are intended for demons.

In the past, each family used to craft their own woven baskets. But nowadays, since women work very often out of the house, they can buy ready-made ones on the markets. Each basket –that we call canang sari- must contain flower petals and sweet foods, be sprinkled with holy water, and above all, toped with incense stick –or dupa- as it is the smoke that allows the essence of the offering to reach the Gods or the demons. The segehans that we put on the floor for the demons are not as pretty, and can contain rotten food. As a matter of the fact, the demons are quite voracious and gluttonous. They can’t even tell the different between good and bad food, which certainly not the case of the Gods who are very discerning.

So don’t surprise when you see these entire little basket on the ground with stick of burning incense. By the way, if you should happen to accidentally step on one, it’s not a big deal for us. What matters is that the offering was done, in the morning and evening, and that it contains everything it needs. The next morning, we sweep it away to replace it with a fresher one.

The demons, Bhuta and Kala, are monsters. We use both names even though no body quite knows the difference between the two. You will see sculpted representations of them in all the temples, placed in front of the entrance or sculpted above the door.

We put food we present to them on the floor because it’s the most impure part of the earth, but in fact, they wander just about everywhere. Luckily, they are only capable in moving straight line and unable to turn corner. By diverting them, we manage to prevent them from entering certain places.

It is said that they often hang out at crossroads where they cause a lot of accidents. When that happened, a priest comes quickly and performs ceremony; upon leaving, he places a pile of offerings at the point where the collision took place. If any blood was shed, since the demons are very fond of it, he will cover the site with a kind of bamboo trellis full of holes. All of these possible entry points will dater the demons that are rather shortsighted, and they will leave the victim alone. In the same manner, when we put our rooster on the cages with lots of opening- in order to protect them from the demons. We don’t hope to make Bhuta Kala disappear with our offerings; that’s impossible, as they are part of the universe. All that we can do is keep them happy enough so that they won’t show up, and may be, even have positive influence. Like the Gods, they are very demanding, and we spend a lot of them satisfying them. Before certain occasions, when we want to keep them huge offerings. I will explain to you which ones, but unlike those for the Gods, these are not edible. Instead we bury them.

But for you to understand where our practices come from, we first need history lesson.